Shrimp
by DarkeFlame
Summary: Someone meets ed and...wait for it...doesn't call him SHORT! this could be a one-shot, could be longer, tell me in a review. no pairings as of yet. if it's longer, i'm upping the rating to T.


**Hey people. I'm drawing a blank for my other story, Changed (y'all should check it out, it's awesome if I do say so myself) and this popped into my head. It's just a crazy little one-shot with no real reference to anything. I might make it a full-fledged story, depending on the response, but it's probably gonna stay a one-shot. I don't own FMA. Anyway, on wit da ficcy.**

Shrimp

"The FullMetal Alchemist, come here?"

"Yeah, that's what I heard. They're sending him to solve the murders."

"Finally. I thought the state'd never do anything."

"They wouldn't. The only reason they're sending anyone is because the murderer is supposedly only killing alchemists."

"Like that Scar fellow?"

"Yeah, except he only kills state alchemists, and in a totally different way. They probably need to see if it really is Scar, or some other copy-cat running around."

"Yeah, those dogs have lost 32 alchemists to that Ishbalan."

_Well, there's nothing better for me to do._ I thought to myself, deciding to see the 'alchemist of the people', aka, Edward Elric arrive in Reole, somewhere north of Youswell. I made my way to the train station, something fairly large for this place.

I jumped as the train whistled sounded, a remnant of an old paranoia. I watched as the giant hunk of metal slowed to a stop, the conductor jump out, and started opening the doors.

Everything was fairly normal until someone in an overlarge red coat hopped out of one of the cars, with a huge armored person following suit. They were quickly surrounded by a horde of people gawking at the famous FullMetal Alchemist. The blondie with the coat extricated himself, leaving the suit of armor to fend for themselves. I walked over to stand next to the blonde, waiting for the noise to die down.

Everyone in the crowd started talking at once, and none of the voices could be made out, as everyone was trying to talk over one another. After a minute or so of this, someone shouted out above the clamor, "Hey armor dude, you really the FullMetal Alchemist, so-called alchemist of the people?"

The armor dude looked dully and remorsefully at the man who said that. At least as dully and remorsefully as an armor's helmet could. He said something that sounded like well-rehearsed litany. "I'm not the FullMetal Alchemist. He is." The armor, who I took to be Alphonse Elric, brother and companion of the famous alchemist, said, and pointed to the kid next to me. I adopted a smug sort of look.

"Who, that shortie? Standing next to Abby?" Alphonse, started towards his brother and me, but was too slow to stop the explosion that followed.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE COULD SEE THE MICROSCOPIC AMOEBA THAT IS YOUR BRAIN WITHOUT A MICROSCOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Thinking quickly, I grabbed the boy's arms, stopping his violent attempts to reach (and quite possibly kill) the man who had spoken. The man (along with everyone else) started edging away in fear, for everyone here had heard of his reputation of a top-class fighter, dangerous in the extreme. Only Alphonse and I stayed where we were. I heard Al sigh in disappointment in front of the struggling boy I was currently restraining.

"Nii-san…" the boy, Edward, stopped struggling as hard when he heard his brother's voice. I looked over his head to see Al walking towards us, apologizing profusely to the other townspeople behind him. I didn't lessen my strangle-hold on Edward's arms knowing of his famously-short temper, and more than a few people who would go out of they're way to taunt the kid.

Al walked over, muttering in our ears that they should get outside. I dragged the blonde outside, somewhere quieter, while Al shooed away any more by-standers.

When it was all quiet, I looked at Al pointedly, not bothering to say anything, as I was out of breath from holding on to a certain struggling chibi for a full ten minutes. Al obviously got the message, and said tiredly, "You can let go of Brother now…"

"Abby."

"Abby. Thanks. Brother tends to loose his temper very easily. You must be strong, though, to hold him for that long." I let Ed go, walking around to stand in between the two brothers, nodding towards Al, to show I had heard him, and turned to face Ed.

"So, you're really the FullMetal Alchemist?"

"Yeah…" Ed said cautiously. I could tell he was still riled from the 'shortie' comment earlier.

"Huh. I would've thought the great FullMetal Alchemist would be-" I started to say, but was cut off by another mini-version of the explosion from earlier. Al looked incredulously at me. You could see the thoughts along the lines of_ 'Here we go again…' _and _'you idiot, I just got him calmed down' _run across his face.

"Who are you calling so small he couldn't even get into the military!!!!!!!!" he fumed.

"I wasn't going to say that." I snapped.

"Oh." Ed said in a small voice, followed by an annoyed, "If you weren't going to say…that… then what were you going to say?"

"I was going to say young, but you just had to jump the gun…" I said exasperatedly.

Ed quickly regained his composure. "Well they don't call me the youngest state alchemist ever for nothing!"

"Whatever." With a last parting laugh, I turned on my heel and walked purposely away.

I heard the two boys behind me chorus "Hey, wait up!" and "Where do you think your going?!" as they ran after me, grabbing my shoulder.

I whirled around, saying with my extensive expertise at stating the obvious, "I'm going home. If you hadn't noticed, it's getting dark out," I started sarcastically. "Do you need a place to stay? You could stay at my house! I'm sure my mother won't mind." I ended on an inviting, warm tone. They looked at each other and shrugged.

"Sure!"

**Well, y'all need to review; tell me if I should continue, and if I so, what you want to see. I need to know, of this's staying a lonely little one-shot forever. If you want it, up for grabs, but say you're taking it, and give me credit. Plagiarism is bad, you know. Flames will be used to bake cookies to those who review. Flamers get burnt ones. Anyway, Ciao!**


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